First a quick garden update, then a recap of pre-Halloween activities.
My cukes are staging a comeback, but my basil doesn't seem to want to give up any of it's newfound territory. Thankfully, the purple beans continue to ignore the feud and continue to produce plentiful harvests:
Maurie and her daughter (and her daughter's friend) and their dog stopped by for a visit last night. The two girls decided to decorate my sidewalk with holiday themes:
Jill was in Baltimore last week (at Washington College), in Minneapolis this week, then off to Wisconsin next week. We manage to stay in touch by email, text, and phone calls (post run this morning):
While Jill is away, I'm taking care of her 3 cats. Mavis (the black one) likes me a lot. The other 2 (Baxter and Claude) tolerate me:
This afternoon was Sean and Amy's annual pumpkin carving party. Sean outdid himself this year with 40 cake balls on a stick and a prosciutto and cheese skull:
This is what the skull looked like after people helped themselves to tasty bits.
Afterward, we retreated to the living room for some serious pumpkin carving:
I went with the angry, upside down jack-o-lantern (no time for an intricate design):
Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay long at the pumpkin party because we had to be at Pete and Maria-Elena's for an Austin Shakespeare event. Their house was the perfect setting for a few of the Bard's soliloquies. It was a nice evening to be outside, and Pete and Glenn's home brew was also excellent.
I was suppose to have dinner with Mollie Thursday night. However, I found out Lyle Lovett was playing a sorta impromptu show at Gruene Hall that night, so I asked if we could go to that instead. Despite the 2 hour drive getting to Gruene (traffic), I thought it was a wise choice:
We didn't have much time to eat prior to the band taking the stage, so we grabbed a quick bite at Cantina del Rio. They had a nice patio outside. My green chile cheeseburger and fries were excellent. Her fish tacos were so so:
Lyle was his usual dry humor self. He told lots of stories and played about 2-1/2 hours. His backing sextet was spot on and included: Russ Kunkel, Viktor Krauss, Keith Sewell, Luke Bulla, John Hagen, and Mitch Watkins. It was my first time in Gruene Hall. It's small. And very white. I think I was the only non-white person there. Not that I noticed.
Like I said, the show was excellent. We were about 30 feet from the stage and had a great view. Here's a quick video that I shot:
The reason I only rode the metric century at the Livestrong ride on Sunday was because I had to catch a flight to Midland later that afternoon for Glady's funeral, and I needed time to pack.
The flight to Midland was uneventful. June and Shawn (her sister) met me at the airport that night and took me over to Shawn's boyfriend's place where I'd be spending the night. After a nice dinner and some reminiscing conversation, I was ready to hit the sack.
The drive from Midland to Floydada took about 3 hours. This is what the drive in looked like (you gotta love the big sky):
June comes from a farming family with roots in the area. The area is flat, and I understand the soil is rich. June and her aunt are looking for their old farm:
And here it is:
And this is Floydada, population four thousand or so:
The funeral took place at the grave site. It was a cool, sunny day and a strong wind blew. The funeral home set up a canopy for the 20 or so people who attended. The local Baptist minister said a few positive words, as did some of her family and friends. The whole ceremony lasted not much longer than 30 minutes.
Afterward, we retreated to a local restaurant for lunch. I had a chance to say hello to Gladys' twin brother, Glenn. The twins could not have taken more divergent paths in life. Glenn grew up with polio and later became the mayor of Amarillo and a successful businessman. Gladys was always the pretty one in the family who had more difficulties in life.
After lunch, June and her aunt dropped me off at the Lubbock airport for my flight home. Lubbock is only an hour away from Floydada and offered me a chance to get to Austin sooner than if I flew back out of Midland.
I had a couple of hours before my flight, so I ordered a sandwich and a beer from the airport bar. Sitting on my stool, I saw the horizon quickly getting darker and darker. Pretty soon, the large picture windows of the bar started shaking violently, the fire alarm sounded loudly, and the warning strobes fired off. Not know what to do, I ate my food and drank my beer while the sky choked with dust and went black. I did not, however, rush to the windows to take pictures and film videos. Even I'm not that foolish. I left that to the news stations and those who post on youtube:
Well, the powers that be shut down the Lubbock airport because of the debris from the dust storm needed to cleared off the runway. I was told I would be put on the next flight out to Austin - the following morning. Understand that it was only 6:00PM when I was told this. I had a long night ahead of me in an airport with limited facilities.
After sitting around for a couple of hours, the opportunity came up for me to take the last flight out of the airport - to Dallas. I jumped on that, figuring Dallas was closer to home than Lubbock. The plane arrived in Dallas around 10:00PM. In Dallas, I found a flight to San Antonio that left at midnight. And since San Antonio is closer to Austin than Dallas, I took that one also. Unfortunately, there wasn't a flight from San Antonio to Austin at 2:00AM, so I called Jill and asked if she'd come get me. She did - and I am forever grateful. We got back to Austin around 3:30AM. But I avoided spending a night in an airport, which no one ever wants to do.
Friday afternoon, Jill and I headed to Houston for my high school reunion happy hour at Escalante's (owned by one of our classmates' family). It was good seeing everyone after so many years, but it was also a bit surreal. My favorite moment happened as we walked into the room where the party took place. A woman greeted me as we walked in. She mentioned that it had been so long since she last saw me. Then she gave me a big hug. Then she looked at my name tag. Then she exclaimed, "Oh, it's you Alvin! - how great to see you again!" Granted, there were only a handful of Asian men in our graduating class, but do we really all look alike?
After the happy hour, Ron, Jeremy, Jill and I went over to Cyclone Anaya's for a late dinner:
The next morning (Saturday), Jill and I met my family at a Japanese restaurant. Actually, Jill had already met everyone in my family at least once, but this was her first time to meet my dad. I, on the other hand, had met my dad and my family several times.
My high school reunion proper was Saturday night, but we had to drive back to Austin, so I could ride in the Livestrong ride Sunday morning in Dripping Springs. I rode with the Dell team, which had probably a hundred member riders, but the only one I recognized was Dustin. He did the 90 mile route, while I rode the 65 mile version.
Jill's back from the first leg of the 2nd half of her Lutheran Author Tour. I asked for some posters from her trip, and she happily obliged - along with some potatoes from a writer friend's garden, apples from an apple picking adventure, and homemade granola from another writer, and...
While Jill was gone, I traded in my convertible:
for something more practical:
A Volkswagen Jetta TDI. It's a turbo diesel, and it gets almost twice the mpg of the Porsche. On a recent trip around town (using both streets and highways), I averaged 44.1 miles per gallon. Not bad.
I received a call from June this afternoon. She told me my former mother-in-law passed away yesterday in Midland. She had fallen and broken her hip. And with her brittle bones, she never recovered.
Life dealt Gladys some pretty shitty cards, and it seemed like she could never really catch a break. In the many years that I knew her, she may not have been the most joyful person to be around, but she was supportive when and where it counted.
And if I know her, she is not going gently into that good night. Rest in peace, Gladys.
